“Insurance litigator Andrew Hooker has taken on the case for free, saying while refusing to pay out on a lapsed policy legal, Dishington was “a dead man walking” and the insurer should show some compassion.
“The very thing that led to him not paying the premium was what killed him.”
Victim had paid AMP $70,000 over several years before he became incapacitated.
So change the government to one that doesn’t believe in neoliberalism.that was good until Key and Judge got their hands on it.
The solution again is simple.
Abandon neoliberalism.
“The problem is that the government stopped acting as a government and started acting as a business.”
Thats true enough but there does remain one advantage even so….and thats the government will not declare bankruptcy (or at least not at the drop of a hat) and walk away from any proved liability
So make your mind up. Are you talking about more regulation or are you talking about nationalisation?
You obviously have little time for anybody who challenges what you write. Trolls are like that. That you would suggest that I am a defender of neoliberalism just shows how little attention you actually pay.
Says you. You are of course the voice of reason….and a legend in you’re own mind.
We all defer to your greatness and wonder how in the fuck we can ever be ‘like’ you.
I’m depressed. I WANNA BE LOIK SOLKTA.
I know I am one – that is a little old lady who is shortly to be an ex customer of Public Trust to protect what I hope to be able to leave to my chosen beneficiaries.
If we could renationalise the banks, we would be far less vulnerable to international financial interests.
If you want to know who really runs NZ, follow the money.
And a lot of that money is Chinese.
Paranoia much. The comment was about Chinese (probably black) mobey…. not Chinese (as in people as a race or ethnicity). Could just as easily have been Russian or the proceeds from any other expansionist wannabe Empire
“The government’s ownership of the BNZ, and use of it as its banker, allowed it to become the largest trading bank. It was fully nationalised in 1945.
An 1865 law which established the Post Office Savings Bank also curbed the rights of other savings banks and enabled it to absorb competitors. By the mid-1950s the Post Office Savings Bank controlled around 80% of the personal savings market.”
“The government’s ownership of the BNZ, and use of it as its banker, allowed it to become the largest trading bank. It was fully nationalised in 1945.
An 1865 law which established the Post Office Savings Bank also curbed the rights of other savings banks and enabled it to absorb competitors. By the mid-1950s the Post Office Savings Bank controlled around 80% of the personal savings market.”
The issue is New Zealand’s banks set a sector profit record in 2017, their profits rising 7.35 per cent to $5.1 billion.
Most of those banks are not NZ owned banks any more therefore NZ does not get that profit that we would get if it was owned by a NZ company.
Apparently NZ banks are one of the most profitable in the world!
(Possibly a complete lack of government regulation, such as not even requiring the bank to guarantee cash deposits, have helped us achieve this dubious honour).
The now profitable (mostly Australian owned) banks were sold off by our government for a song in the 1980’s and 1990’s, like Bank of New Zealand, etc….
Which contains the statement –
“A state monopoly can be run at close to cost.”
This applies to more than insurance. It can also be applied to state housing.
It was only National’s cult rigidity that caused it to bring state housing up to market level in stages to make it less noticeable and less of a financial shock to everyone.
Housing could have a base housing cost set at new based on costs. Then the aim should be to recover that cost over many years on an amortised basis, plus an allowance for repairs and maintenance each year, these to be carried out regularly. There is no reason for state housing to be provided free, the people in them may be entitled to government pensions, and out of those they might need rental housing and if it is government housing they would be able to afford it, it might be somewhat cheaper than private, but sufficient for government retrieval of cost plus.
The new style of census seems to have been a disaster. This is what the country is coming to.
I didn’t fill it in. But is sounds like it was designed with extensive consultation from Wellington committees, hence completely out of touch with modern life.
There is a certain irony about worrying about A4 sized mould in a census while not actually understanding the vast amounts of people who don’t even have a home to live in to even be included in the census or even want to be identified, or to calculate the hours of their ‘main’ job when people don’t even have a main job anymore.
ECO MAORIs Kiwi Bank ac 389019048573100 Please help me to sort the nz police out
I decided against trying to use PayPal to receive donations .I decided to copy
Thestandards safe way of appealing and receiving donations I set up a Kiwi Bank AC
So he tangata the people of Aoteraoroa New Zealand who support ECO MAORI can use internet banking to make donations and know that there bank accounts are safe after they have made a donation . ECO MAORI will use the donations to SUE the nz police for all the breaches to mine and my Whano Privacy Rights & Human Rights a lot of people can see this has been happening to ECO MAORI when I win my case I will set up a
Charitable Trust and I will pay the money that I used and any extra donations into this Trust account and appeal to anyone else in Aoteraoroa who need help with finance to SUE the nz police for there in justices I will copy bank statements on this site to let he tangata the people know that ECO MAORI has Honest Honorable and transparent intentions to use your hard earned Putea Money. .
Kia Kaha Ka kite ano
Good morning Corin Dan from Q & A on TV1 I’v had to face up to the silver back effect and buy me some reading glasses lol.
Its assume that good fortune shines down on a Labour lead Governments finances the working common persons Government .
What happened to a Government that was all about the wealthy well you already know the answer to that question Te tangata Te tangata Te tangata treating the people humanly and fairly look after Papatunanuku and all her beautiful creatures and good fortune is what you will receive .
shonky gave the wealthy who did not need more money more money tax cuts and were did that come from well the poor common person he put GST up 2. 1/2 % .
shonkys famous words were I will not put up GST .
Business people you will have to use your initiative and management will have to earn the money and become more productive to support a higher wage like OUR Australian cousins do. Pay more money for the common person and Ladys equally then there is more money for business . Ka kite ano P.S I believe there should be quote rs for ladys in management at 25% Kia kaha Eco maori will still voice his opinion when I see anyone taking us down the wrong path
Here is a industry that would increase OUR gross domestic product by 1 Billion dollars in 3 years it will creat hundreds of jobs for our rual communitys that have had a sharp decline in income in the last 30 years .I have seen this decline with my own eyes .When I was a young man there were Kiwi fruit orchards vineyards all around the East Coast Ngati Purou sheep and Beef farms were all well mantained and employment was a lot higher than it is at the minute.
I can even remember the Helicopter flying Rob Muldoon to Rangitokia or Tiktiki I was on the other side of the Waiapu river at Tikapa this is how much Mana Te Taiwhiti had in those days . This industry will creat income with low impact to the enviroment ka kite ano
This is what happens when one does not learn the culture and does not show respect to that culture the people who are investing in there country lose out big time its time we respected these great people and there culture well thats ECO MAORI view enough said here is a link to Newsroom .
If teaching was a male dominated sector of OUR society they would be payed a lot more here is a link showing the disparities of in come between Ladys and men this has to change as the jobs aren’t easier because someone is a lady if fact its harder for Ladys in male dominated industrys.
Good evening News Hub on TV 3 well I have already written about some of the topics you have covered to night .
The Poverty Bay name change is a topic I would like to write about te tangata will already know my opinion of this the Original name would be nice .
Celebrating the NZ Aotearoa wars will educate all Kiwis about what happened and about OUR Maori culture I hope all Kiwis will be proud of our Maori culture as ECO MAORI is Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S its been a good weekend for our sports ka pai
You have been publishing this a lot recently (and the previous give-a-little and paypal).
How is it going?
Got a lawyer to help you as yet? You know a lot will help on a contingency basis if they think you have a case – which means you wont need the money up front.
I requested paper forms over a week ago (it said it would take upp to a week to get it to me). Still haven’t received it. Sent them a message yesterday.
I will fill it out.
But can see how the many homeless would find it to much hassle to find a way to get access to fill in the form (on or offline).
It’s part of our +rock star+ economy that the MSM and government tells us we have.
If you only ask the right questions and send it to people who feel comfortable in their conservatory with good internet access and reliable postal service, Wellington gets the results they want.
Hi Carolyn, how were the desperate homeless folks’ census statistics gathered in the past? I don’t think foot soldier collectors toured under bridges and parks after dark.
The majority of New Zealanders considered homeless have letterboxes. I believe we are apparently the worst in the OECD because our statistics include people like me when I was living in luxury at my sister’s place.
Of course we need to address our problems but to do so we need an accurate handle on the problem.
This footage from downtown Los Angeles Christmas Day a few months ago.
For the previous census, statsnz did indeed have people taking forms around known sleeping areas. Dunno about the one just been.
I quite liked the qualitative lifestyle questions in this census. Each one individually sounds a bit silly, but if you’re a person in a dwelling with widespread mould, no conservatory, and you have difficulty cleaning yourself (which points to flexibility and activity levels) then that’s a different picture from someone who’s perfectly fine in a clean, dry home with a conservatory or two.
If you can’t clean yourself up, how reliable are your other faculties?
Also I think the problem is, the census won’t be an accurate picture because there are serious issues with how the census itself was run and people either did not know about the changes of arbitrary deciding to get people to go onto the Internet rather than using people going door to door as in previous censuses.
It you count the homeless, couch surfers, illegal immigrants, people who can’t or won’t use a computer, people who didn’t know about it, (easy to do if you seldom use mail and don’t watch TV) and non English speakers then you probably have about 25% of people who won’t complete it.
So it’s not gonna provide any answers that are meaningful to the government.
People and paper would have been better like the old days, but these days it’s easier to pretend that forms mean everybody’s needs and there is a zealous willingness to complete them. (Possibly a Wellington curse).
Cleaning requires joint flexibility and/or physical proportions within a certain range. Next time you sit down on the loo, pretend you can’t bend your back without shards of pain, or that you can’t rotate your shoulder to raise your hand up to 45 degrees. As if you’d had a vehicle injury years ago or arthritis were well-entrenched. And even if someone can’t fill in the forms, there’s provision for the forms to be filled in by caregivers (not that a physical disability comes close to meaning one doesn’t have the “faculties” to fill in a form).
The couch surfers get the forms from the people who own the couch. The homeless are sought out by census workers. As are immigrants. After all that, the results are compared with testing exercises and previous results to calculate the estimated resident population (to account for internal migration on the day and some systemic issues).
If this census does indeed miss 25% of the population compared to the one five years ago, it would stand out like a dog’s bollocks. Most of the organisation was done under the nats, so we’ll see, but I reckon you’ll find that they know what dwellings exist and will be a-knocking on any that haven’t filled in the forms.
Yes, Graeme pointed out an aspect of this new online system that I hadn’t considered. With the paper version they state things like ‘If you answered Yes move on to the next question’. If answering ‘No’ the additional questions were all visible. With the online version, if answering ‘Yes’ we don’t know of the additional questions. I quite like seeing the additional questions but in the name of KISS I can see benefits.
Yes there seemed to be quite a focus on “So what sort of houses are we all living in?” I can see that generating useful stats. Polls and surveys seem to be all over the place and to go forward as best we can, we need to know where we’re at now.
One of the changes with the move online is that the sub-menus and questions are now hidden to unaffected people. In the old days of paper it was all there but you’d be directed to specific sections base on your answer.
One question that had me wondering was the Maori decent one, 3 options yes, no, don’t know. I selected don’t know as I have several people with no past down the tree. I then got directed to a question asking if I knew my iwi. Now that should have been picked up in re-release testing, which brings the whole thing into question. What other errors where in the thing?
Thank-you fior inviting me to quote your entire comment, I may do that in a future Open Mike.
Your continuing failure to acknowledge your misunderstanding of ‘tit for tat’, which was the only justification you offered for your initial misogynistic slur:
“That shows what kind of bitch you [Anne] are.”
is genuinely puzzling.
Maybe the light will dawn if I being responses to your more objectional ‘twits’ with the following:
That shows what kind of a bitch* James is.
*Note I’m using that term only because James has used this term against a person he does not like on this site. It’s called ‘just deserts’.
The remedy is in your hands. I predict that you will continue to maintain that there is nothing wrong with your initial misogynistic attack on Anne.
Yes, I wonder about the wisdom of publically claiming a refusal to complete the census. This from a recent Stuff article…
“If you don’t, here’s what Stats NZ has to say: “After census day, any household who is yet to complete their census forms will be contacted again by letter. … People who choose not to fill out their census forms can be fined between $50 and $500.”
I didn’t fill it in because I didn’t know it was on, I have everything automated and use email mostly to keep in touch, therefore seldom check paper mail and I don’t normally watch TV, let alone adds.
Nothing on Facebook and did not notice any adds on The Standard or Daily Blog for it (2nd and 3rd ranking blogs) which are my NZ blog reads, or the guardian (apparently they have 10% NZ readership) therefore it was a pretty bad effort in my view if the census people were trying to reach an online community that does not watch TV or read right wing propaganda on a regular basis.
Apparently you can still fill it in, but I only noticed that because I saw a TV add as I was fast forwarding about the census.
Personally I can see A LOT of problems with their assumptions.
I’m a native English speaker what did they do for non English speakers in particular ones who don’t want to be identified or are visiting.
The other day I posted a link with some tenants who trashed a house. I really can’t see how people like that are going to be reached by this style of census, can you really see people logging onto the internet and filling it out who are in dire straits or who have major issues going on?
As for going around homeless people, didn’t the John Key government laughably go around a few cars, to do that to determine that homeless people did not want any help?
We have just found that our immigration statistic are based on people signing a form on their intentions on entering the country not actually on actual records of who is really here in this country.
Many people have multiple passports and can apparently be deported and just pop back again for years under a new name. No wonder OZ and the UK are getting tired of all our citizens piggy backing into their countries on NZ passports.
These people live on another planet if you think our government amateur attempts are the way to gather data from a widening group of people who live here.
I didn’t fill it in because I didn’t know it was on
That was a problem. Advertising can only reach those who engage with the advertising medium.
Still, now that you know about it you can ring 0800 CENSUS and organise an access code.
Personally I can see A LOT of problems with their assumptions.
And I can see a lot of problems with your assumptions and they all revolve around your ignorance.
As for going around homeless people, didn’t the John Key government laughably go around a few cars, to do that to determine that homeless people did not want any help?
What’s one got to do with the other? Especially when John was actually lying about it.
The other day I posted a link with some tenants who trashed a house. I really can’t see how people like that are going to be reached by this style of census
I can’t see them being reached by any sort of census. Or do you think that census people should endanger their lives by approaching these people?
These people live on another planet if you think our government amateur attempts are the way to gather data from a widening group of people who live here.
Would you have preferred John Key’s and National’s preferred idea of dropping the census because they watched the populace enough to already have the data?
Please note that doing so is a legal requirement and that not doing so may come with a fine.
But is sounds like it was designed with extensive consultation from Wellington committees, hence completely out of touch with modern life.
Actually, it sounds like you’re talking out your arse. Nearly three million people had filled it out online by the end of the 6th so that would be very much inline with modern life.
There is a certain irony about worrying about A4 sized mould in a census while not actually understanding the vast amounts of people who don’t even have a home to live in to even be included in the census or even want to be identified, or to calculate the hours of their ‘main’ job when people don’t even have a main job anymore.
An A4 sized patch of mould can represent major problems with the house and as we have a housing crisis and houses that are killing people I’d say that it was fairly important.
People who don’t live in houses are being included.
People who put zero hours in their main job are noted as being unemployed. What most people don’t seem to understand is that it’s possible to extrapolate other answers from the data given.
Nearly three million people had filled it out online by the end of the 6th… we have over 4.5 million people here, so roughly a third have not filled it out.
But I sure you are right and it’s considered wildly successful by the bureaucrats having not managed to reach 33% so far.
(Against paper, which was probably a lot more successful).
Change and our reluctance to engage with it gets tougher as we age….The death of Freddie Mercury and John Bonham was the end of decent music. Remember when we repaired electric jugs, irons and taps…ahhhh the good old days.
Nearly three million people had filled it out online by the end of the 6th… we have over 4.5 million people here, so roughly a third have not filled it out.
Which is a lie. Nearly three million people filled it out online but many more had filled it out on paper but they’re going to take a while to come in.
(Against paper, which was probably a lot more successful).
[Citation Needed]
As I said – it’s always taken weeks and months to do the census.
You’re a really good advocate for the census Draco, I like your genuine commitment. The extrapolation of census statistics would do my head in but I could imagine you digging it. Would you entertain a full-time gig there?
I’m not taking the piss here Draco, I like you. I’d like to bounce some ideas off you. If it’s ok with you I wonder if an author here is able to send my log-in email address to you?
I might be barking up a disinterested tree, that’s cool too Draco. I still like you. Bastard.
Well done on gaining a useful qualification. I await the announcement of a Govt job (because private sector bad) with a salary just enough to live on (cos profit bad). Alternatively massive voluntary tax payments. Cos lots of tax good.
He founded it presumably assisted greatly in funding it but I greatly doubt he is CEO and am certain he wouldn’t be head of HR so why are you deciding to piss on him for the faults of middle management type muppets employed by it?
So in this instance – there is zero allegation against Bono, There is nothing showing he was involved in lack of investigations etc. Nothing at all to infer he has done anything wrong at all.
He did however help fund a charity that has done a lot of good and one assumes invested a lot of time and financial support to it in order to help people.
Yet he sums up everything that is wrong with the liberal Elite.
James, you obviously know what Ed is referring to, so stop being an idiot.
Ed, while I think that James’ comments yesterday were ‘casually’ racist, I don’t see what that has to do with the conversations here. You look like you are flaming, so I suggest you pull your head in as well.
Both of you can take this as a moderator warning. If you can’t play nicely I will take you both out of the sandpit for a time. This petty flaming puts other people off and adds nothing to the debates.
As I do you. And I say that given your comments on exploited immigrants who apparently should just learn to ‘move on’ in true H1/H2 pragmatism…after having been bullshiited to by agencies of/or by agencies the NZ state is responsible for.
Munned Stullet….move on man, cut your losses…. stop pushing shit uphill.
Forget the lifetime of earnings you’ve attained…
Nah man…you’re fault you were conned by NZ govt agency approved consiltants….move on….start again ya lazy munter.
Actually @SM, i used to take you at face value till I realised….fill in the rest for yourself
Yet he sums up everything that is wrong with the liberal Elite.
It is. If we didn’t have the rich, and that includes Bono, then we wouldn’t have need of charities to address the problems that the rich create by their simple existence.
‘Bono (and his charity One) earned kudos for insisting countries, corporations and people pay taxes in pursuit of a fairer society. In 2011, Bono, 57, who, according to CNN has an estimated net worth of $590 million, further angered his countrymen when he espoused the values of Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax breaks. He went on the record to claim that these breaks for multi-billion dollar companies had brought Ireland the “only prosperity we’ve ever known.” He had a point, but as the locals noted, Bono wasn’t even giving the country a meager 12.5 percent any longer.’
More evidence of the duplicitous U2 lead singer.
The Irish hate him.
Because he is a tax dodger.
‘But to huge sections of the Irish population, Bono is about as welcome as cold sores and spam email. How can that be?’
‘it’s another issue that really dogs the band: their tax arrangements. In 2006, U2 moved part of their business to the Netherlands, where the tax rate on royalty earnings is more favourable for artists. When you operate on U2’s financial scale, this is a major detail. Ireland was scalded by the global 2008 financial crash; communities were eroded by austerity, while the band’s reputation as “tax dodgers” persisted. As People Before Profit party TD Bríd Smith says: “Bono is seen as part of that cohort of very wealthy people who avoid paying tax in this country but enjoy the fruits of being of this country.”
Interesting speech from Jeremy Corbyn to Scottish Labour. Starting off with a reference to the Spanish Civil War(!) and using terms like comrade to address the audience, and socialism to describe the party.
The themes of ending austerity, national renewal, a genuine economic alternative and hope for a better society in the future are what appeals to youth.
At 11:30 he starts to talk about Brexit and makes some interesting comments. Labour seems to have accepted Brexit – I don’t think Corbyn was really ever that keen on the United States of Neoliberal Europe anyway – and is seeking to paint the Tories as using Brexit for an exercise in disaster capitalism.
I don’t fancy his chances on getting a decent new customs union deal and retaining the single market with the EU. The idea Britain can regulate the importation of cheap Labour and remain in the customs union and single market seems fanciful to me. I don’t think Corbyn has yet grasped the nature of the European antipathy to the UK.
The EU bureaucracies response to Brexit so far has been arrogant, high handed and rigid. Talking to Europeans in Holland, Spain, Germany and France the public are kinda over the British hating on the EU anyway, and are sad the Brits leaving but over the moaning from them when they were in. The EU technocrats have got nothing to gain in cutting the British a good deal and a lot to lose if they make leaving the march to a centralised, technocrat run Europe look like a viable alternative.
Corbyn’s EU policy hinges on his promise of getting a good deal for Britain. Time will tell! But I support the idea of Britain leaving the EU if the EU will not allow the UK Labour party to carry out socialist reforms.
The EU has already shown it’s dedication to, keeping the power of banks, opposing Labour rights and community Democracy, and the ruthless bankrupting of any country that does not carry out Neo-liberal “reforms”.
The EU’s biggest problem with Britain leaving, is the population of other EU countries seeing what can happen when Socialist “Democracy” returns to Britain, under Corbyn.
Sanctuary it was Dundee’s large contribution of fighters to the Spanish Civil War that he was referring to, because he was speaking in Dundee.
And he kept referring to ‘our movement’ And he praised Ann somebody who got 70% of some vote, and that she was only the second woman to become Rector of some university. I think he was touching base with all the things that Labour Dundee had to be proud of.
I haven’t got time to listen to it properly and indeed i can’t hear clearly even though I have my sound options open fully – my hearing usually pretty good. So thanks for making this available. Others will no doubt get a lot from it.
Christianson, a tourist information adviser in the northern city of Akureyri, says Icelanders are becoming increasingly frustrated with having to queue, slow traffic on the ring road that circles the main island, and hearing English rather than Icelandic everywhere they go.
More worryingly, the millions of pairs of feet trampling on areas of natural beauty is unsustainable, while infrastructure is under intense pressure. Sound familiar?
Sutton was one of the keen devotees of Roger Douglas et al – (Roger Douglas, Michael Bassett, Mike Moore and David Lange were Labour Party politicians instrumental in the overthrow of their leader Bill Rowling …) – who went on to introduce us to the dreadful neoiberal, free market that has cost us so much.
Trotter’s essay quotes David Lange, who tried to withdraw from the Gang of Four, actually throwing out Roger which was disputed and reversed by his colleagues. David referred to Bill Sutton needing a brain transplant but that a compatible rabbit couldn’t be found. Trotter calls that a ‘vicious joke’. I think it was a well-deserved jab, and he might well have referred to a ‘compatible rat’.
Sutton is a scientist, and latterly a senior policy analyst for about 11 years. He must be suffering from what many scientists (and also many academics) fall prey to, a profound belief in the superiority of his mind and training and the rightness of his own decisions.
(Sutton has a PhD in biochemistry (Massey University) and worked as a research scientist from 1969 to 1984. After retiring from politics he worked as a senior policy analyst from 1996 to 2007.) Thanks wikipedia
Now the Ashurst bypass, first promised to be finished by March 2018 hasn’t even started and is merely drifting ever further into the future.
Is there anything, apart from taking lots and lots of selfies with primary school kids that our current lot of no-hopers has managed?
Well, if you need the land you can use the Public Works Act, or whatever it might be called these days. That is what is normally done in these circumstances and previous Labour Governments certainly weren’t phased by the idea.
That is of course what you would have to do if you decided to use the new railways of course for transport but I’m sure you know that. I think it is a great deal more likely that the NZTA have been told not to do anything as the current lot of bunnies in the Government can’t find any money.
As for using ships. There is a port at Wellington and another one at Napier of course but I’m not really sure that is the answer to transport between the Wairarapa or Southern Hawke’s Bay and the Manawatu.
I’m afraid you cannot blame the previous National Government for things that the present Government are delaying. Good try but no cigar.
I’m loving the right wing attack lines, “labour are not delivering”.
As it stands, we have a civil service who are no longer servants of the public, but ideology and preserving the status quo. Labour, NZ1st and the Greens can’t do anything until this pile of crap national left them with is fixed.
But that’s what works Alwyn. Selfies with school kids and endangered species gets us a Green/Labour govt next time round. We’re living a country where the most popular show on TV is Shortland Street.
“Hey Mr Polluter, this is how much you’re getting for the farm that’s been in your family for 7 generations, to hell with your skyrocket valuation. Grab your BBQ and Hi Lux and piss off.”…….Not so much, msm suicide.
“Selfies with school kids and endangered species”. Well that part is correct although the rest of the sentence is unlikely to be true.
The endangered species in this is the Green Party, after all. They aren’t likely to survive the next election. I don’t think they will be missed. When you consider the stuff-up their leader has overseen in the Census (under 3 million people recorded) and one of the candidates for the XX chromosome spot is of for a fortnights holiday in New York their work ethic doesn’t really impress.
Alwyn, the quality of your comments is declining 🙁
When you consider the stuff-up their leader has overseen in the Census (under 3 million people recorded) and one of the candidates for the XX chromosome spot is of for a fortnights holiday in New York their work ethic doesn’t really impress.
I fail to see how you can possibly claim that the quality of my comments is declining. The links you include confirm precisely what I said, don’t they?
I said.
1. “Under 3 million people recorded”. Your link says that the total is nearing 3 million. Perfect score I would say.
2. “Genter is off for a fortnights holiday in New York”. Your link says she is off to attend a session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. She left on the 10th. The session lasts from the 12th to the 23rd. I suppose you could say that t is only for 12 days, not a fortnight but I’ll bet she is away for more than 14 days. http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw62-2018
Spot on for accuracy
That looks like a 100% record to me. Do you ever get close to that?
That looks like a 100% record to me. Do you ever get close to that?
No, never, my PB is 97% (but that was some time ago) so your 100% hit rate is very impressive indeed.
However, I don’t want to burst your well-deserved jubilant and celebratory mood (i.e. your bubble), I really don’t, but you do realise that so far 3 million people have taken part online, don’t you?
At the end of the collection process, Stats NZ is aiming for 70 percent of households to have taken part online. [again, my emphasis]
But I agree that this amounts to a major “stuff-up” on behalf of the responsible Minister, James Shaw, and he has no choice but to hand in his resignation to the PM.
It is just not on that Julie Anne Genter goes to New York for at least (!) a whole fortnight for a meeting of only 12 days, all expenses paid for no doubt, and then does SFA. I double your bet that after that meeting she will be in full holiday mode and will have nothing else on her agenda. What’s worse, she might even rest her feet on a table with the excuse that she’s pregnant!! How long will she be away for again? Heads should roll for this crime to the NZ Taxpayer.
It is good that there are still honest people holding this Government to account and in particular that CS faction who call themselves the Green Party – those water melons can never be trusted near power or with NZ Taxpayers money, that’s for sure.
And I do apologise; your latest comment was of the superior quality that we have come to relish here. I mean, you cannot argue with 100% accuracy, can you?
Wow!
You must have been drinking something very potent.
On the other hand I think your comment even exceeds mine in its flamboyance, and I was trying very hard.
You win. Your comment is funnier than mine.
Alwyn, are you complaining that the Labour/NZ First government have not confiscated the required land to speed up construction?
From the linked article it sounds like the delays are caused by NZTA negotiating in good faith to acquire the land.
Do you have any inside knowledge of the situation?
And what does this bypass have to do with promises made about the new road? AFAIK work/planning on the new road has not been delayed.
See my comment to DTB about how you can obtain needed land. It isn’t “confiscation”. You have to pay a fair price and in practice it is the only way that any roads, or railways, can be built.
As far as the new road is concerned the best we are being promised is that we might hear about options by the end of March. “might”.
Hardly what Little was saying last year is it?
“It will be built as quickly as possible, using the powers available to the Government to speed up consenting and planning, and ensuring funding is immediately available.”
My understanding is that compulsory acquisition via the public works act is usually a last resort. Otherwise why is NZTA currently negotiating rather than acquiring?
So you agree that there were no pre election promises regarding the delayed Ashhurst bypass?
Regarding the new road, I have not seen any evidence that that work/planning has been delayed, or that the government is not using all powers available to them. Can you provide any?
It is nothing short of astonishing that the man who aggressively countered his government’s critics with the assertion, “There is no alternative!”, is unable to connect the dots between an economic and political system which insists that it represents the terminus of history, and these rising levels of political disillusionment and despair. If this, the neoliberal world order, is as good as it gets; and if all the truly meaningful decision-making powers have been taken out of the hands of politicians; then what, in God’s name, is the point of casting a vote?
It is time we took our power back away from the institutions that are designed to keep capitalism going despite it’s obvious failure to provide our society with what it needs.
This disgraceful incident should never have been allowed to occur in the first place …
Woman breaks leg at Middlemore hospital after having epidural for birth! Despite complaining of numbness in her right leg after the birth and having mobility difficulties, the new mother was forced to walk by the duty staff nurse. She fell, causing her right leg to collapse under her, fracturing her tibia!
The resulting bullshit and spin used by the hospital department management/hierarchy is incredibly mind boggling! What’s the matter with using plain simple language, while also acknowledging the accident was the responsibility of the duty nurse and the hospital, something which is blatantly obvious?
It will be interesting to see who is held accountable for this woman’s preventable accident while still in the care of the hospital!
They will blame the midwife if there is enough fuss. Never the hospital because it’s standard practise to require you to leave within a few hours of giving birth naturally and within 24 hours of a Caesarean. (At least that was what our family was told).
In the old days people stayed for 7 days in a maternity hospital and were taught how to care for the baby and had meals etc provided so you could concentrate on getting well and bonding.
Now to save the government money you bundle your newborn into a carseat within hours and have to go else where.
Possibly that explains our abuse statistics, it’s not exactly a good start for a baby and a Mother or family.
Also unless you went private you would be hard pressed to see a obstetrician in the leadup and during the birth of a baby.
After a few days in a birth centre if you choose to go to one, the after care goes to the charity Plunket because the government does not provide any or see the need to provide any government run after birth care.
Or as my Doctor would put it.
“You must remember that life is a terminal disease”
My Mother would have been more succinct
“Nobody gets out of here alive”
Theres a different between part funding a charity which needs to fund raise and accept donations from corporates than a fully funding NZ maternity aftercare service that is focused 100% on the job at hand (not fundraising).
I’d say the neoliberal business model of maternity care is NOT working if you look at the abuse statistics of this county and our poor efforts for children’s care and wellbeing and our dropping ranking is the world on this.
Our birth stats are going down. We aren’t a land of milk and honey and a good place to bring up children any more, except to people who can afford to buy what they need to compensate for NZ basic care, or come from somewhere really crowded, or have been in poverty or a refugee camp.
There were 1,608 fewer births and 429 fewer deaths compared with 2015.
The total fertility rate dropped to a low of 1.87 births per woman, compared with an annual average of about 2.02 from 1980–2015.
The infant mortality rate was 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.
(Between 1980 and 1986 we seemed to be below the natural increase, and are beginning to show now a similar trend.)
When I had my kids in the early 80’s I was allowed to stay in the maternity ward for 5 days.
For me, it was crucial, because I got the help that I needed to establish breast-feeding. (Not necessarily an easy or straightforward process.
Sadly several women there switched to bottles because they simply didn’t get the necessary help and advice.
There are many reasons for early mobization post anaesthesia, chiefly prevention of thrombsis, if this woman had died of a pulmonary embolism because she was not encouraged to mobilise it would be the health professional still at fault. In the not too distant past women were bed ridden for days post partum and the died of preventable causes, so whats one broken leg compared to the lives saved.
Oh sounds a bit regimented. What is appropriate for this patient at this particular time. Don’t want people afraid of nurses and hospitals do we, no Nurse Ratched stuff.
I take on board your comparison with life threatening DVTs. However, it is definitely not satisfactory for a new mother to suffer a fractured leg immediate post partum, through staff failure to recognise a problem existed after receiving epidural anaesthesia. This is something which could have been avoided had the nurse been doing her job as an observant, caring health professional. Negligence is not conducive towards a good start for the new mother or her baby.
During the time I had my two children, it was mandatory for new mothers to rest up, bond with baby and establish good feeding patterns in the maternity hospital, usually for about a week or thereabouts. Most of us mothers were encouraged to move around, at a level that was comfortable for us, but not forced if mobility caused pain or difficulties. Also during that post natal period, the hospital physiotherapist visited, giving appropriate exercise programmes to assist mobility, as well as to prevent DVTs from forming. This system worked quite well for most new mothers and their babies.
Seems these days good, positive, as well as respectful maternity care is non existent. More the pity!
I’d like to see ACC expanded to include sickness – basically turn it into income protection insurance for illness and injury. This could partly be funded by removing the requirement to provide sick leave, and levying employers more on the savings. Any thoughts?
Sick leave can be utilised for other than the worker’s own sickness, no matter what the company allows or is told. It is a safety net for families, though may not be used because of harsh necessity and resentment by the business against those not collapsing at work. My sister was a teacher, very devoted and hard working, and the management of her school were a bit snippy when she needed time off. Don’t think of cutting sick leave is my thought.
Craig H
You are so trusting. The ACC rules can be changed, subverted etc. They already are a different beast than when they were started. The things they do to the needy people on their books, and the ones the reject, are not good reading. I think they are reducing costs by putting people’s applications through a computerised system, ie being sorted by robot brains. Some of the humans weren’t so good because the government set pet medical doctors onto them to decide whether they could come in without being bitten, or have to endure a fight. Don’t think ACC is some reliably good organisation to help the community. I think they are something useful because their reserves look good on a balance sheet for the country so we can keep a low interest rate on our borrowing, so we can have some money circulating like a real economy.
The Holidays Act can be changed too if the government of the day decides to. Provided the ACC Act sets the entitlements into legislation rather than regulations, it’s as safe (or not) as any other legislative entitlement.
Too much power in one hands can create misery. Don’t think you quite understand how our government slowly has unwound, and sometimes quickly, legislative entitlements. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The point wasn’t to see how many cars could be crushed it was to stop the cars being in such way they would be crushed
The yobs cut way down on what they were doing so Jude scored a major win on that point
And shes number 4 with a portfolio that will see her get media attention so any faltering in the polls and Jude can lead National to the promised land so its a win-win-win situation all round (except for Twyford and Labour of course)
The Government, and it’s Minister, Phil Twyford what to build shitloads of houses.. Lots of New Zealanders want shitloads of houses built, fast. The National Party, and it’s aspiring leader, Judith Collins want to stop them doing this.
I’m terribly sorry ED I never realised you were hard of hearing.
This is an interview about the very important rights of animals. Ali G invited animal rights ambassadors to talk with him about how we should treat animals. The guests did their best to explain why it is wrong to perform experiments on animals at home, an important question that was asked was –
“Would you eat a chicken if another chicken would die if you said no!”
Terribly sorry Stunned Mullet but you have been coming on TS long enough to know that we like to have some information about what is going on in your brain, what point it wants to make about what the video contains so we know whether we want to watch it. Is it going to be fun, or informative, or like something that happens in NZ that is worthy of notice etc.
What gets me is not just what Keating says, but the conditions that underpin it. It seems as if the “professional politicians” that replaced the old representative ones are inhibited from meaningfully engaging in realpolitik, due to their subservience to corporate and financial interests. The fact is, the whole world did not magically transform into dedicated adherents to the so-called Washington Consensus, and their response has been limited to bullying and cajoling those who have not succumbed: “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”, they seem to think. Keating refers to this approach as a “lack of strategy” and praises Trump for at least trying.
The last two sentences: Mr Keating said Russia had the power to “obliterate” the US, and urged Mr Trump to maintain a workable relationship with the Kremlin.
“Russia alone has the capacity to obliterate the United States. If you’re a country that lives under the threat of obliteration, you generally should have a policy.”
I wonder if we should campaign to oust David Parker for signing the TPP. He hasn’t kept his promises. It isn’t in the public interest. And most importantly it won’t bring down the coalition. But it will make them think long and hard before shafting New Zealand again.
The President went to Pennsylvania, singled out a black Congresswoman from California, and called her stupid. That’s not race-baiting. That’s racist.— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 11, 2018
Two weeks in a row. Apparently the president calling a black Congresswoman “low IQ” is part of the stump speech now.— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) March 11, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested Jews and other minorities in Russia, including Tatars and Ukranians, could be to blame for meddling in the US presidential election.
“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” he told NBC News. “Maybe they’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked.”
Perhaps tRump has no intention of being voted out.
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts state secretary William Galvin is strongly opposing President Donald Trump’s proposal to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places during federal elections.
A provision of the Homeland Security reauthorization bill would allow armed Secret Service agents to enter polling locations at the direction of the President. Galvin says he is “horrified that this is even under consideration.”
TS …. something in recent times you come to love to hate.
The commenters with such a love of their own arseholes and self-adjuged intelligence. The egos. The dried up old public servants trying to remain relevant as contributors (probably … i was going to mention Paekakariki or Browns Bay …. best not go there or it’ll provoke an Ad-like epistle justifying ilk and neo-lib, or at least neo-lib-lite ideology).
An ability to sympathise rather than empathise….there goes the progressive Chardonnay TVNZ7 leftie.
Time is running out though folks. The game is up…. which is why NZ elected a change. Hopefully the MMP govts participants may soon come to realise what put them there, and why, and what is expected of them.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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AMP refuses to pay up.
“Insurance litigator Andrew Hooker has taken on the case for free, saying while refusing to pay out on a lapsed policy legal, Dishington was “a dead man walking” and the insurer should show some compassion.
“The very thing that led to him not paying the premium was what killed him.”
Victim had paid AMP $70,000 over several years before he became incapacitated.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12008859
The government should boot out parasitical private insurers and take over business themselves.
Yes, the gummint should immediately nationalise all insurance companies, along with banks and law firms.
the governments insurance record is nothing to rely upon…..I submit EQC and Southern Response
A.C.C.
that too
So change the government to one that doesn’t believe in neoliberalism.that was good until Key and Judge got their hands on it.
The solution again is simple.
Abandon neoliberalism.
It used to be better back when the government wasn’t using insurance and all other state services as a cash cow.
The problem is that the government stopped acting as a government and started acting as a business.
“The problem is that the government stopped acting as a government and started acting as a business.”
Thats true enough but there does remain one advantage even so….and thats the government will not declare bankruptcy (or at least not at the drop of a hat) and walk away from any proved liability
You are starting to appreciate the need to rid the country of neoliberalism.
So we didn’t have private banks, law firms and insurance companies before neoliberalism?
Of course we did.
However banks were deregulated then.
You know this, so why are you wasting my time?
I have little time for the rabid defenders of an economic system which will bring about the 6th extinction.
He may know that but I don’t, so please elaboarte.
Here are some sources than answer your question.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation
https://teara.govt.nz/en/banking-and-finance/page-2
Can you cut that RW smartarse stuff solkta?
So make your mind up. Are you talking about more regulation or are you talking about nationalisation?
You obviously have little time for anybody who challenges what you write. Trolls are like that. That you would suggest that I am a defender of neoliberalism just shows how little attention you actually pay.
I cannot be bothered with your right wing nonsense.
There is nothing right wing about asking you what you are talking about. And nothing right wing about me.
Says you. You are of course the voice of reason….and a legend in you’re own mind.
We all defer to your greatness and wonder how in the fuck we can ever be ‘like’ you.
I’m depressed. I WANNA BE LOIK SOLKTA.
Yes we did. We also had state insurance, banks and law firms.
And Public Trust.
These days the public trust just screws little old ladies out of their inheritances.
I know I am one – that is a little old lady who is shortly to be an ex customer of Public Trust to protect what I hope to be able to leave to my chosen beneficiaries.
He may have spent a little too much time in Cuba over the holidays. It’s good he’s coming around though.
If we could renationalise the banks, we would be far less vulnerable to international financial interests.
If you want to know who really runs NZ, follow the money.
And a lot of that money is Chinese.
What you got against Chinese?
Have you Brady’s comments?
No. What have you got against Chinese?
Totalitarian expansionist China, you mean.
Pair of racists
Paranoia much. The comment was about Chinese (probably black) mobey…. not Chinese (as in people as a race or ethnicity). Could just as easily have been Russian or the proceeds from any other expansionist wannabe Empire
More vile racism
What is wrong with the Chinese.
I see you are throwing accustaion at others about being racist (without providing a quote)
If we could renationalise the banks
We’ve always had private banks in New Zealand.
“The government’s ownership of the BNZ, and use of it as its banker, allowed it to become the largest trading bank. It was fully nationalised in 1945.
An 1865 law which established the Post Office Savings Bank also curbed the rights of other savings banks and enabled it to absorb competitors. By the mid-1950s the Post Office Savings Bank controlled around 80% of the personal savings market.”
https://teara.govt.nz/en/banking-and-finance/page-1
We may have always had private banks, but we’ve also had strong historical Government intervention going by the above.
“The government’s ownership of the BNZ, and use of it as its banker, allowed it to become the largest trading bank. It was fully nationalised in 1945.
An 1865 law which established the Post Office Savings Bank also curbed the rights of other savings banks and enabled it to absorb competitors. By the mid-1950s the Post Office Savings Bank controlled around 80% of the personal savings market.”
https://teara.govt.nz/en/banking-and-finance/page-1
Maybe those private banks haven’t always had such a strong influence though..
The issue is New Zealand’s banks set a sector profit record in 2017, their profits rising 7.35 per cent to $5.1 billion.
Most of those banks are not NZ owned banks any more therefore NZ does not get that profit that we would get if it was owned by a NZ company.
Apparently NZ banks are one of the most profitable in the world!
(Possibly a complete lack of government regulation, such as not even requiring the bank to guarantee cash deposits, have helped us achieve this dubious honour).
The now profitable (mostly Australian owned) banks were sold off by our government for a song in the 1980’s and 1990’s, like Bank of New Zealand, etc….
Yes.
DTB
Has listed under Yes the link to –
https://thestandard.org.nz/why-insurance-should-be-a-state-monopoly/
Which contains the statement –
“A state monopoly can be run at close to cost.”
This applies to more than insurance. It can also be applied to state housing.
It was only National’s cult rigidity that caused it to bring state housing up to market level in stages to make it less noticeable and less of a financial shock to everyone.
Housing could have a base housing cost set at new based on costs. Then the aim should be to recover that cost over many years on an amortised basis, plus an allowance for repairs and maintenance each year, these to be carried out regularly. There is no reason for state housing to be provided free, the people in them may be entitled to government pensions, and out of those they might need rental housing and if it is government housing they would be able to afford it, it might be somewhat cheaper than private, but sufficient for government retrieval of cost plus.
You have listed a lot of businesses now Ed that you think that the government should take over.
Banks, Law firms, insurers.
Any others?
I would certainly ban hate speech by virulent racists as exhibited by you yesterday .
You hit a new low.
Really – Please site any hate speech from me yesterday.
Oh and answer the question.
‘
A message to everyone from the women of the world . . .
Yes change it to man and it becomes even more obvious. LOL LOL
The new style of census seems to have been a disaster. This is what the country is coming to.
I didn’t fill it in. But is sounds like it was designed with extensive consultation from Wellington committees, hence completely out of touch with modern life.
There is a certain irony about worrying about A4 sized mould in a census while not actually understanding the vast amounts of people who don’t even have a home to live in to even be included in the census or even want to be identified, or to calculate the hours of their ‘main’ job when people don’t even have a main job anymore.
Paul Little: Hard to make sense of the Census
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12008618
ECO MAORIs Kiwi Bank ac 389019048573100 Please help me to sort the nz police out
I decided against trying to use PayPal to receive donations .I decided to copy
Thestandards safe way of appealing and receiving donations I set up a Kiwi Bank AC
So he tangata the people of Aoteraoroa New Zealand who support ECO MAORI can use internet banking to make donations and know that there bank accounts are safe after they have made a donation . ECO MAORI will use the donations to SUE the nz police for all the breaches to mine and my Whano Privacy Rights & Human Rights a lot of people can see this has been happening to ECO MAORI when I win my case I will set up a
Charitable Trust and I will pay the money that I used and any extra donations into this Trust account and appeal to anyone else in Aoteraoroa who need help with finance to SUE the nz police for there in justices I will copy bank statements on this site to let he tangata the people know that ECO MAORI has Honest Honorable and transparent intentions to use your hard earned Putea Money. .
Kia Kaha Ka kite ano
Good morning Corin Dan from Q & A on TV1 I’v had to face up to the silver back effect and buy me some reading glasses lol.
Its assume that good fortune shines down on a Labour lead Governments finances the working common persons Government .
What happened to a Government that was all about the wealthy well you already know the answer to that question Te tangata Te tangata Te tangata treating the people humanly and fairly look after Papatunanuku and all her beautiful creatures and good fortune is what you will receive .
shonky gave the wealthy who did not need more money more money tax cuts and were did that come from well the poor common person he put GST up 2. 1/2 % .
shonkys famous words were I will not put up GST .
Business people you will have to use your initiative and management will have to earn the money and become more productive to support a higher wage like OUR Australian cousins do. Pay more money for the common person and Ladys equally then there is more money for business . Ka kite ano P.S I believe there should be quote rs for ladys in management at 25% Kia kaha Eco maori will still voice his opinion when I see anyone taking us down the wrong path
I got mahi kai pai
Here is a industry that would increase OUR gross domestic product by 1 Billion dollars in 3 years it will creat hundreds of jobs for our rual communitys that have had a sharp decline in income in the last 30 years .I have seen this decline with my own eyes .When I was a young man there were Kiwi fruit orchards vineyards all around the East Coast Ngati Purou sheep and Beef farms were all well mantained and employment was a lot higher than it is at the minute.
I can even remember the Helicopter flying Rob Muldoon to Rangitokia or Tiktiki I was on the other side of the Waiapu river at Tikapa this is how much Mana Te Taiwhiti had in those days . This industry will creat income with low impact to the enviroment ka kite ano
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/102044376/medical-marijuana-a-billiondollar-industry-says-budding-exporter-whose-has-staff-with-a-past
This is what happens when one does not learn the culture and does not show respect to that culture the people who are investing in there country lose out big time its time we respected these great people and there culture well thats ECO MAORI view enough said here is a link to Newsroom .
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/03/10/95465/rod-oram-fonterras-big-big-beingmate-problems Ka kite ano P.S its THE MONTH of the wood tiger
If teaching was a male dominated sector of OUR society they would be payed a lot more here is a link showing the disparities of in come between Ladys and men this has to change as the jobs aren’t easier because someone is a lady if fact its harder for Ladys in male dominated industrys.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/10/top-paid-men-women-gender-gap Ka kite ano
Good evening News Hub on TV 3 well I have already written about some of the topics you have covered to night .
The Poverty Bay name change is a topic I would like to write about te tangata will already know my opinion of this the Original name would be nice .
Celebrating the NZ Aotearoa wars will educate all Kiwis about what happened and about OUR Maori culture I hope all Kiwis will be proud of our Maori culture as ECO MAORI is Kia kaha ka kite ano P.S its been a good weekend for our sports ka pai
You have been publishing this a lot recently (and the previous give-a-little and paypal).
How is it going?
Got a lawyer to help you as yet? You know a lot will help on a contingency basis if they think you have a case – which means you wont need the money up front.
I requested paper forms over a week ago (it said it would take upp to a week to get it to me). Still haven’t received it. Sent them a message yesterday.
I will fill it out.
But can see how the many homeless would find it to much hassle to find a way to get access to fill in the form (on or offline).
Seriously! Conservatory?!
It’s part of our +rock star+ economy that the MSM and government tells us we have.
If you only ask the right questions and send it to people who feel comfortable in their conservatory with good internet access and reliable postal service, Wellington gets the results they want.
Hi Carolyn, how were the desperate homeless folks’ census statistics gathered in the past? I don’t think foot soldier collectors toured under bridges and parks after dark.
The majority of New Zealanders considered homeless have letterboxes. I believe we are apparently the worst in the OECD because our statistics include people like me when I was living in luxury at my sister’s place.
Of course we need to address our problems but to do so we need an accurate handle on the problem.
This footage from downtown Los Angeles Christmas Day a few months ago.
For the previous census, statsnz did indeed have people taking forms around known sleeping areas. Dunno about the one just been.
I quite liked the qualitative lifestyle questions in this census. Each one individually sounds a bit silly, but if you’re a person in a dwelling with widespread mould, no conservatory, and you have difficulty cleaning yourself (which points to flexibility and activity levels) then that’s a different picture from someone who’s perfectly fine in a clean, dry home with a conservatory or two.
Yep, there was. Also going round known freedom camping spots to DoC huts. The census has always taken weeks to complete.
If you can’t clean yourself up, how reliable are your other faculties?
Also I think the problem is, the census won’t be an accurate picture because there are serious issues with how the census itself was run and people either did not know about the changes of arbitrary deciding to get people to go onto the Internet rather than using people going door to door as in previous censuses.
It you count the homeless, couch surfers, illegal immigrants, people who can’t or won’t use a computer, people who didn’t know about it, (easy to do if you seldom use mail and don’t watch TV) and non English speakers then you probably have about 25% of people who won’t complete it.
So it’s not gonna provide any answers that are meaningful to the government.
People and paper would have been better like the old days, but these days it’s easier to pretend that forms mean everybody’s needs and there is a zealous willingness to complete them. (Possibly a Wellington curse).
Cleaning requires joint flexibility and/or physical proportions within a certain range. Next time you sit down on the loo, pretend you can’t bend your back without shards of pain, or that you can’t rotate your shoulder to raise your hand up to 45 degrees. As if you’d had a vehicle injury years ago or arthritis were well-entrenched. And even if someone can’t fill in the forms, there’s provision for the forms to be filled in by caregivers (not that a physical disability comes close to meaning one doesn’t have the “faculties” to fill in a form).
The couch surfers get the forms from the people who own the couch. The homeless are sought out by census workers. As are immigrants. After all that, the results are compared with testing exercises and previous results to calculate the estimated resident population (to account for internal migration on the day and some systemic issues).
If this census does indeed miss 25% of the population compared to the one five years ago, it would stand out like a dog’s bollocks. Most of the organisation was done under the nats, so we’ll see, but I reckon you’ll find that they know what dwellings exist and will be a-knocking on any that haven’t filled in the forms.
Ahhh ok, cool, thanks.
Yes, Graeme pointed out an aspect of this new online system that I hadn’t considered. With the paper version they state things like ‘If you answered Yes move on to the next question’. If answering ‘No’ the additional questions were all visible. With the online version, if answering ‘Yes’ we don’t know of the additional questions. I quite like seeing the additional questions but in the name of KISS I can see benefits.
Yes there seemed to be quite a focus on “So what sort of houses are we all living in?” I can see that generating useful stats. Polls and surveys seem to be all over the place and to go forward as best we can, we need to know where we’re at now.
One of the changes with the move online is that the sub-menus and questions are now hidden to unaffected people. In the old days of paper it was all there but you’d be directed to specific sections base on your answer.
One question that had me wondering was the Maori decent one, 3 options yes, no, don’t know. I selected don’t know as I have several people with no past down the tree. I then got directed to a question asking if I knew my iwi. Now that should have been picked up in re-release testing, which brings the whole thing into question. What other errors where in the thing?
They might have been playing it safe in the face of human politics and existential crises.
StatsNZ have written screeds about how to deal with people who put their ethnicity down as “New Zealander”, for example.
“I didn’t fill it in”
Why not?
Do you not have a social and legal obligation to do so?
Social obligation.
You don’t know what that is.
I do which is why I mentioned it.
Are you going to try and start flame wars with personal insults everywhere?
Ah James – never change! You are astonishingly predictable for a human being(?) Thank goodness you’re here to extinguish those ‘flame wars’.
Regarding “personal insults”, I have a simple question about the opening sentence of a comment you made yesterday.
My question: Is this sentence misogynistic, when stripped of its off-colour ‘tit-for-tat’ camouflage?
“I see you true colours, shining through”, so please consider upgrading your camouflage.
If you quote the entire thing it is obvious.
A partial quote is just poor form and dishonest.
Does the quote in this link convey your intent, James, or do you want more?
https://thestandard.org.nz/doofus-of-the-week-march-10-2018/#comment-1459186
“As it stands, however, James’ opening (‘shock jock’) sentence is a nasty misogynistic slur”.
yes – Quote the entire post and you will see how obvious it is.
Funny how Ive had to ask twice now – yet you refuse to post it. Could be just be that it would show your post up to be dishonest?
Thank-you fior inviting me to quote your entire comment, I may do that in a future Open Mike.
Your continuing failure to acknowledge your misunderstanding of ‘tit for tat’, which was the only justification you offered for your initial misogynistic slur:
is genuinely puzzling.
Maybe the light will dawn if I being responses to your more objectional ‘twits’ with the following:
The remedy is in your hands. I predict that you will continue to maintain that there is nothing wrong with your initial misogynistic attack on Anne.
Yes, I wonder about the wisdom of publically claiming a refusal to complete the census. This from a recent Stuff article…
“If you don’t, here’s what Stats NZ has to say: “After census day, any household who is yet to complete their census forms will be contacted again by letter. … People who choose not to fill out their census forms can be fined between $50 and $500.”
Yes he does.
I didn’t fill it in because I didn’t know it was on, I have everything automated and use email mostly to keep in touch, therefore seldom check paper mail and I don’t normally watch TV, let alone adds.
Nothing on Facebook and did not notice any adds on The Standard or Daily Blog for it (2nd and 3rd ranking blogs) which are my NZ blog reads, or the guardian (apparently they have 10% NZ readership) therefore it was a pretty bad effort in my view if the census people were trying to reach an online community that does not watch TV or read right wing propaganda on a regular basis.
Apparently you can still fill it in, but I only noticed that because I saw a TV add as I was fast forwarding about the census.
Personally I can see A LOT of problems with their assumptions.
I’m a native English speaker what did they do for non English speakers in particular ones who don’t want to be identified or are visiting.
The other day I posted a link with some tenants who trashed a house. I really can’t see how people like that are going to be reached by this style of census, can you really see people logging onto the internet and filling it out who are in dire straits or who have major issues going on?
As for going around homeless people, didn’t the John Key government laughably go around a few cars, to do that to determine that homeless people did not want any help?
We have just found that our immigration statistic are based on people signing a form on their intentions on entering the country not actually on actual records of who is really here in this country.
Many people have multiple passports and can apparently be deported and just pop back again for years under a new name. No wonder OZ and the UK are getting tired of all our citizens piggy backing into their countries on NZ passports.
These people live on another planet if you think our government amateur attempts are the way to gather data from a widening group of people who live here.
That was a problem. Advertising can only reach those who engage with the advertising medium.
Still, now that you know about it you can ring 0800 CENSUS and organise an access code.
And I can see a lot of problems with your assumptions and they all revolve around your ignorance.
What’s one got to do with the other? Especially when John was actually lying about it.
I can’t see them being reached by any sort of census. Or do you think that census people should endanger their lives by approaching these people?
Would you have preferred John Key’s and National’s preferred idea of dropping the census because they watched the populace enough to already have the data?
Actually, it’s been very successful.
Please note that doing so is a legal requirement and that not doing so may come with a fine.
Actually, it sounds like you’re talking out your arse. Nearly three million people had filled it out online by the end of the 6th so that would be very much inline with modern life.
An A4 sized patch of mould can represent major problems with the house and as we have a housing crisis and houses that are killing people I’d say that it was fairly important.
People who don’t live in houses are being included.
People who put zero hours in their main job are noted as being unemployed. What most people don’t seem to understand is that it’s possible to extrapolate other answers from the data given.
Nearly three million people had filled it out online by the end of the 6th… we have over 4.5 million people here, so roughly a third have not filled it out.
But I sure you are right and it’s considered wildly successful by the bureaucrats having not managed to reach 33% so far.
(Against paper, which was probably a lot more successful).
Change and our reluctance to engage with it gets tougher as we age….The death of Freddie Mercury and John Bonham was the end of decent music. Remember when we repaired electric jugs, irons and taps…ahhhh the good old days.
+111
Which is a lie. Nearly three million people filled it out online but many more had filled it out on paper but they’re going to take a while to come in.
[Citation Needed]
As I said – it’s always taken weeks and months to do the census.
You’re a really good advocate for the census Draco, I like your genuine commitment. The extrapolation of census statistics would do my head in but I could imagine you digging it. Would you entertain a full-time gig there?
Depends upon what role is being offered. There is a reason why I just completed a Bch Comp Sci major programming after all.
Isn’t that an ideal qualification for a handful of very specialised roles in a place like NZ stats?
OK we need a plan Draco. From help desk to an ajar door in that dept?
Is that the ideal outcome?
I’m not taking the piss here Draco, I like you. I’d like to bounce some ideas off you. If it’s ok with you I wonder if an author here is able to send my log-in email address to you?
I might be barking up a disinterested tree, that’s cool too Draco. I still like you. Bastard.
Well done on gaining a useful qualification. I await the announcement of a Govt job (because private sector bad) with a salary just enough to live on (cos profit bad). Alternatively massive voluntary tax payments. Cos lots of tax good.
Bono epitomises everything that is wrong with the liberal elite.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/mar/10/bonos-anti-poverty-campaign-faces-claims-of-harassment
He founded it presumably assisted greatly in funding it but I greatly doubt he is CEO and am certain he wouldn’t be head of HR so why are you deciding to piss on him for the faults of middle management type muppets employed by it?
If you did a modicum of research or had a slight amount of knowledge, you would know Bono has form.
So in this instance – there is zero allegation against Bono, There is nothing showing he was involved in lack of investigations etc. Nothing at all to infer he has done anything wrong at all.
He did however help fund a charity that has done a lot of good and one assumes invested a lot of time and financial support to it in order to help people.
Yet he sums up everything that is wrong with the liberal Elite.
Sorry – you do not make sense.
I would not expect you to understand me.
And I have no intention of explaining myself to you after your overt racism yesterday.
“your overt racism yesterday.”
again – please quote it.
Ok you two,
James, you obviously know what Ed is referring to, so stop being an idiot.
Ed, while I think that James’ comments yesterday were ‘casually’ racist, I don’t see what that has to do with the conversations here. You look like you are flaming, so I suggest you pull your head in as well.
Both of you can take this as a moderator warning. If you can’t play nicely I will take you both out of the sandpit for a time. This petty flaming puts other people off and adds nothing to the debates.
Accusations of racism is Ed’s latest tactic to not engage with anyone who dares to not agree with his every utterance.
I find Ed amusing, albeit a little bit tragic.
As I do you. And I say that given your comments on exploited immigrants who apparently should just learn to ‘move on’ in true H1/H2 pragmatism…after having been bullshiited to by agencies of/or by agencies the NZ state is responsible for.
Munned Stullet….move on man, cut your losses…. stop pushing shit uphill.
Forget the lifetime of earnings you’ve attained…
Nah man…you’re fault you were conned by NZ govt agency approved consiltants….move on….start again ya lazy munter.
Actually @SM, i used to take you at face value till I realised….fill in the rest for yourself
please read my comment to James for a moderation note.
It is. If we didn’t have the rich, and that includes Bono, then we wouldn’t have need of charities to address the problems that the rich create by their simple existence.
One example of Bono’s form.
He is a tax dodger.
‘Inside Bono’s boundless hypocrisy’
‘Bono (and his charity One) earned kudos for insisting countries, corporations and people pay taxes in pursuit of a fairer society. In 2011, Bono, 57, who, according to CNN has an estimated net worth of $590 million, further angered his countrymen when he espoused the values of Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax breaks. He went on the record to claim that these breaks for multi-billion dollar companies had brought Ireland the “only prosperity we’ve ever known.” He had a point, but as the locals noted, Bono wasn’t even giving the country a meager 12.5 percent any longer.’
https://nypost.com/2017/11/11/the-hypocrisy-of-bono-and-his-one-charity/amp/
More evidence of the duplicitous U2 lead singer.
The Irish hate him.
Because he is a tax dodger.
‘But to huge sections of the Irish population, Bono is about as welcome as cold sores and spam email. How can that be?’
‘it’s another issue that really dogs the band: their tax arrangements. In 2006, U2 moved part of their business to the Netherlands, where the tax rate on royalty earnings is more favourable for artists. When you operate on U2’s financial scale, this is a major detail. Ireland was scalded by the global 2008 financial crash; communities were eroded by austerity, while the band’s reputation as “tax dodgers” persisted. As People Before Profit party TD Bríd Smith says: “Bono is seen as part of that cohort of very wealthy people who avoid paying tax in this country but enjoy the fruits of being of this country.”
https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/12/where-the-streets-have-no-statues-why-do-the-irish-hate-u2
Interesting speech from Jeremy Corbyn to Scottish Labour. Starting off with a reference to the Spanish Civil War(!) and using terms like comrade to address the audience, and socialism to describe the party.
The themes of ending austerity, national renewal, a genuine economic alternative and hope for a better society in the future are what appeals to youth.
At 11:30 he starts to talk about Brexit and makes some interesting comments. Labour seems to have accepted Brexit – I don’t think Corbyn was really ever that keen on the United States of Neoliberal Europe anyway – and is seeking to paint the Tories as using Brexit for an exercise in disaster capitalism.
I don’t fancy his chances on getting a decent new customs union deal and retaining the single market with the EU. The idea Britain can regulate the importation of cheap Labour and remain in the customs union and single market seems fanciful to me. I don’t think Corbyn has yet grasped the nature of the European antipathy to the UK.
The EU bureaucracies response to Brexit so far has been arrogant, high handed and rigid. Talking to Europeans in Holland, Spain, Germany and France the public are kinda over the British hating on the EU anyway, and are sad the Brits leaving but over the moaning from them when they were in. The EU technocrats have got nothing to gain in cutting the British a good deal and a lot to lose if they make leaving the march to a centralised, technocrat run Europe look like a viable alternative.
Corbyn’s EU policy hinges on his promise of getting a good deal for Britain. Time will tell! But I support the idea of Britain leaving the EU if the EU will not allow the UK Labour party to carry out socialist reforms.
The EU has already shown it’s dedication to, keeping the power of banks, opposing Labour rights and community Democracy, and the ruthless bankrupting of any country that does not carry out Neo-liberal “reforms”.
The EU’s biggest problem with Britain leaving, is the population of other EU countries seeing what can happen when Socialist “Democracy” returns to Britain, under Corbyn.
Sanctuary it was Dundee’s large contribution of fighters to the Spanish Civil War that he was referring to, because he was speaking in Dundee.
And he kept referring to ‘our movement’ And he praised Ann somebody who got 70% of some vote, and that she was only the second woman to become Rector of some university. I think he was touching base with all the things that Labour Dundee had to be proud of.
I haven’t got time to listen to it properly and indeed i can’t hear clearly even though I have my sound options open fully – my hearing usually pretty good. So thanks for making this available. Others will no doubt get a lot from it.
Some very good interview on Wallace Chapman this morning.
Treasury talking about a more realistic fairer economic system here?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018635582/gabriel-makhlouf-natural-capital-and-national-wellbeing
Gabriel Makhlouf: natural capital and national wellbeing
From Sunday Morning, 8:37 am today
Listen duration 22′ :06″
Recently Treasury announced it plans to measure the wellbeing of the nation as part of its Living Standards Framework. The Secretary to the Treasury, Gabriel Makhlouf, outlines how it will work.
Tourism – Iceland and NZ can high five
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018635213/insight-tourism-saturation-nz-s-lessons-for-iceland (look at great images)
Iceland is drowning in tourists.
Last year more than two million people visited the Scandinavian country, which is home to just 330,000 people living on islands about a third of the size of New Zealand.
Listen 25′ :26″
Locals are cashing in on the tourism boom – but as in New Zealand, it’s proving to be a double-edged sword.
Christianson, a tourist information adviser in the northern city of Akureyri, says Icelanders are becoming increasingly frustrated with having to queue, slow traffic on the ring road that circles the main island, and hearing English rather than Icelandic everywhere they go.
More worryingly, the millions of pairs of feet trampling on areas of natural beauty is unsustainable, while infrastructure is under intense pressure. Sound familiar?
Those who have listened to Sec of Treasury, Gabriel Makhlouf about how they propose to include a measure of standard of living progress or decline in their reports, should read this piece by Chris Trotter on Bill Sutton.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/03/09/still-looking-for-a-compatible-rabbit/
Sutton was one of the keen devotees of Roger Douglas et al – (Roger Douglas, Michael Bassett, Mike Moore and David Lange were Labour Party politicians instrumental in the overthrow of their leader Bill Rowling …) – who went on to introduce us to the dreadful neoiberal, free market that has cost us so much.
Trotter’s essay quotes David Lange, who tried to withdraw from the Gang of Four, actually throwing out Roger which was disputed and reversed by his colleagues. David referred to Bill Sutton needing a brain transplant but that a compatible rabbit couldn’t be found. Trotter calls that a ‘vicious joke’. I think it was a well-deserved jab, and he might well have referred to a ‘compatible rat’.
Sutton is a scientist, and latterly a senior policy analyst for about 11 years. He must be suffering from what many scientists (and also many academics) fall prey to, a profound belief in the superiority of his mind and training and the rightness of his own decisions.
(Sutton has a PhD in biochemistry (Massey University) and worked as a research scientist from 1969 to 1984. After retiring from politics he worked as a senior policy analyst from 1996 to 2007.) Thanks wikipedia
Well, so much for the promises made by the Labour Party last year.
The Manawatu Gorge repair, or replacement is just getting later and later, if it ever happens at all. Even the bypass at Ashurst has gone into limbo.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/102100536/ashhurst-bypass-on-hold-for-foreseeable-future
Prior to the election the then leader was making brave promises.
http://www.labour.org.nz/manawatu_gorge
The candidates were making a variety of claims
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96287936/manawatu-candidates-front-up-with-manawatu-gorge-plans
“Lees-Galloway said with the arrival of MMP, the days of politicians promising and not delivering were over.
“It is a leap of faith and you will have to trust we will do that.”
Now the Ashurst bypass, first promised to be finished by March 2018 hasn’t even started and is merely drifting ever further into the future.
Is there anything, apart from taking lots and lots of selfies with primary school kids that our current lot of no-hopers has managed?
So, that would have been a National Party promise then?
Oh, wait, no – that was NZTA and they’re being held up by the farmers trying to rip off the government.
This is also the type of problem that happens when you use trucks as the main method of transport rather than trains and ships.
Well, if you need the land you can use the Public Works Act, or whatever it might be called these days. That is what is normally done in these circumstances and previous Labour Governments certainly weren’t phased by the idea.
That is of course what you would have to do if you decided to use the new railways of course for transport but I’m sure you know that. I think it is a great deal more likely that the NZTA have been told not to do anything as the current lot of bunnies in the Government can’t find any money.
As for using ships. There is a port at Wellington and another one at Napier of course but I’m not really sure that is the answer to transport between the Wairarapa or Southern Hawke’s Bay and the Manawatu.
I’m afraid you cannot blame the previous National Government for things that the present Government are delaying. Good try but no cigar.
You’re aware of how long and acquisition under the Public Works Act takes.
NZTA are in a war of resistance against this government.
The delays for that one and many others will continue even well after the impending Government Policy Statement.
I’m loving the right wing attack lines, “labour are not delivering”.
As it stands, we have a civil service who are no longer servants of the public, but ideology and preserving the status quo. Labour, NZ1st and the Greens can’t do anything until this pile of crap national left them with is fixed.
Any large ideological shift requires a good old clean out.
9 years under one government inevitably tilts the public service.
Minister Twyford is fully up to the task and aware of what he has to do.
Yes it’s a bit early to say the new government isn’t delivering. However there are some warning signs:
1. The number of Ministers who are in ‘witness protection’ (eg Kelvin Davis https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/03/an_acting_pm_who_cant_talk_on_anything_the_government_is_doing.html, Clare Curran (who has been hammered by Melissa Lee of all people)).
2. The number of Ministers looking like possums in the headlights (Davis again, Curran again, Willie Jackson, Nanaia Mahuta).
3. The post election ‘road to Damascus’ conversion to the TPP (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1802/S00193/complete-u-turn-by-labour-and-nz-first-on-tpp.htm).
4. Pre election promises that are and were the stuff of Disney world (kiwibuild https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/102113019/Economist-warns-KiwiBuild-is-set-to-disappoint?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter, tree planting…).
5. A PM who gets photographed handing awards to students of a school she is about to close, and at a retreat where allegations of sexual assault have surfaced.
6. An expensive bribe to students that has resulted in a 0% increase in student numbers (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12008838).
7. A Finance Minister who flip flops on the level of government debt) https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/101346887/grant-robertsons-aboutface-on-debt).
8. A foreign buyers ban so poorly conceived it would stop the 5G roll out (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12007127).
And that’s just for starters!
“NZTA are in a war of resistance against this government.”
Hardly surprising considering the makeup of it’s board, https://nzta.govt.nz/about-us/about-the-nz-transport-agency/our-board/ , stacked with contracting insiders. Of course they are going to look after their mates.
V. v. Useless (or Uturn) haven’t heard anyone lamenting her loss as mayor
Can see a few changes coming up there.
Solution.
Fire the board.
But that’s what works Alwyn. Selfies with school kids and endangered species gets us a Green/Labour govt next time round. We’re living a country where the most popular show on TV is Shortland Street.
“Hey Mr Polluter, this is how much you’re getting for the farm that’s been in your family for 7 generations, to hell with your skyrocket valuation. Grab your BBQ and Hi Lux and piss off.”…….Not so much, msm suicide.
“Selfies with school kids and endangered species”. Well that part is correct although the rest of the sentence is unlikely to be true.
The endangered species in this is the Green Party, after all. They aren’t likely to survive the next election. I don’t think they will be missed. When you consider the stuff-up their leader has overseen in the Census (under 3 million people recorded) and one of the candidates for the XX chromosome spot is of for a fortnights holiday in New York their work ethic doesn’t really impress.
Cool. What’s the weather doing around your parts? Where are you at Alwyn?
Alwyn, the quality of your comments is declining 🙁
For your edification on Census stats so far: https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/census-online-total-nears-3-million
Julie Anne Genter, Minister for Women, will lead the New Zealand Government Delegation at the Sixty-Second Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister-women-lead-new-zealand-delegation-un-commission-status-women
I fail to see how you can possibly claim that the quality of my comments is declining. The links you include confirm precisely what I said, don’t they?
I said.
1. “Under 3 million people recorded”. Your link says that the total is nearing 3 million. Perfect score I would say.
2. “Genter is off for a fortnights holiday in New York”. Your link says she is off to attend a session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York. She left on the 10th. The session lasts from the 12th to the 23rd. I suppose you could say that t is only for 12 days, not a fortnight but I’ll bet she is away for more than 14 days.
http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/csw62-2018
Spot on for accuracy
That looks like a 100% record to me. Do you ever get close to that?
No, never, my PB is 97% (but that was some time ago) so your 100% hit rate is very impressive indeed.
However, I don’t want to burst your well-deserved jubilant and celebratory mood (i.e. your bubble), I really don’t, but you do realise that so far 3 million people have taken part online, don’t you?
But I agree that this amounts to a major “stuff-up” on behalf of the responsible Minister, James Shaw, and he has no choice but to hand in his resignation to the PM.
It is just not on that Julie Anne Genter goes to New York for at least (!) a whole fortnight for a meeting of only 12 days, all expenses paid for no doubt, and then does SFA. I double your bet that after that meeting she will be in full holiday mode and will have nothing else on her agenda. What’s worse, she might even rest her feet on a table with the excuse that she’s pregnant!! How long will she be away for again? Heads should roll for this crime to the NZ Taxpayer.
It is good that there are still honest people holding this Government to account and in particular that CS faction who call themselves the Green Party – those water melons can never be trusted near power or with NZ Taxpayers money, that’s for sure.
And I do apologise; your latest comment was of the superior quality that we have come to relish here. I mean, you cannot argue with 100% accuracy, can you?
Wow!
You must have been drinking something very potent.
On the other hand I think your comment even exceeds mine in its flamboyance, and I was trying very hard.
You win. Your comment is funnier than mine.
I cannot accept your flattery, Alwyn, it’s embarrassing!
It was mint tea, by the way.
Alwyn, are you complaining that the Labour/NZ First government have not confiscated the required land to speed up construction?
From the linked article it sounds like the delays are caused by NZTA negotiating in good faith to acquire the land.
Do you have any inside knowledge of the situation?
And what does this bypass have to do with promises made about the new road? AFAIK work/planning on the new road has not been delayed.
See my comment to DTB about how you can obtain needed land. It isn’t “confiscation”. You have to pay a fair price and in practice it is the only way that any roads, or railways, can be built.
As far as the new road is concerned the best we are being promised is that we might hear about options by the end of March. “might”.
Hardly what Little was saying last year is it?
“It will be built as quickly as possible, using the powers available to the Government to speed up consenting and planning, and ensuring funding is immediately available.”
My understanding is that compulsory acquisition via the public works act is usually a last resort. Otherwise why is NZTA currently negotiating rather than acquiring?
So you agree that there were no pre election promises regarding the delayed Ashhurst bypass?
Regarding the new road, I have not seen any evidence that that work/planning has been delayed, or that the government is not using all powers available to them. Can you provide any?
This column from Trotter asks a good question:
It is time we took our power back away from the institutions that are designed to keep capitalism going despite it’s obvious failure to provide our society with what it needs.
This disgraceful incident should never have been allowed to occur in the first place …
Woman breaks leg at Middlemore hospital after having epidural for birth! Despite complaining of numbness in her right leg after the birth and having mobility difficulties, the new mother was forced to walk by the duty staff nurse. She fell, causing her right leg to collapse under her, fracturing her tibia!
The resulting bullshit and spin used by the hospital department management/hierarchy is incredibly mind boggling! What’s the matter with using plain simple language, while also acknowledging the accident was the responsibility of the duty nurse and the hospital, something which is blatantly obvious?
It will be interesting to see who is held accountable for this woman’s preventable accident while still in the care of the hospital!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12001186
They will blame the midwife if there is enough fuss. Never the hospital because it’s standard practise to require you to leave within a few hours of giving birth naturally and within 24 hours of a Caesarean. (At least that was what our family was told).
In the old days people stayed for 7 days in a maternity hospital and were taught how to care for the baby and had meals etc provided so you could concentrate on getting well and bonding.
Now to save the government money you bundle your newborn into a carseat within hours and have to go else where.
Possibly that explains our abuse statistics, it’s not exactly a good start for a baby and a Mother or family.
Also unless you went private you would be hard pressed to see a obstetrician in the leadup and during the birth of a baby.
After a few days in a birth centre if you choose to go to one, the after care goes to the charity Plunket because the government does not provide any or see the need to provide any government run after birth care.
My ex just dropped our sprog on a mattress on the lounge floor.
I hope it was a very soft mattress. The Police get a bit suspicious about “dropped” claims if the child is hurt.
(Couldn’t resist that).
Arguably, birth & death are the most traumatic experiences in and of life.
Or as my Doctor would put it.
“You must remember that life is a terminal disease”
My Mother would have been more succinct
“Nobody gets out of here alive”
I’m afraid your doctor was well-conditioned by his professional training at med school because life is a terminal condition, not a disease.
Your mother was 100% accurate; it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree 😉
Is the government no longer providing funding for ‘Well Child’ services ?
Theres a different between part funding a charity which needs to fund raise and accept donations from corporates than a fully funding NZ maternity aftercare service that is focused 100% on the job at hand (not fundraising).
I’d say the neoliberal business model of maternity care is NOT working if you look at the abuse statistics of this county and our poor efforts for children’s care and wellbeing and our dropping ranking is the world on this.
Our birth stats are going down. We aren’t a land of milk and honey and a good place to bring up children any more, except to people who can afford to buy what they need to compensate for NZ basic care, or come from somewhere really crowded, or have been in poverty or a refugee camp.
http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/births/BirthsAndDeaths_HOTPYeDec16.aspx
There were 1,608 fewer births and 429 fewer deaths compared with 2015.
The total fertility rate dropped to a low of 1.87 births per woman, compared with an annual average of about 2.02 from 1980–2015.
The infant mortality rate was 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.
(Between 1980 and 1986 we seemed to be below the natural increase, and are beginning to show now a similar trend.)
Our current Government are trying to do something about it.
Look at the leadership being displayed by Ardern and Genter.
Immigration from less fortunate nations can address that.
When I had my kids in the early 80’s I was allowed to stay in the maternity ward for 5 days.
For me, it was crucial, because I got the help that I needed to establish breast-feeding. (Not necessarily an easy or straightforward process.
Sadly several women there switched to bottles because they simply didn’t get the necessary help and advice.
One of my colleagues gave birth at night and they wanted to discharge her before 5am, ffs.
Interesting point about the obs, too. I wonder if there’s an observable socioeconomic bias…
There are many reasons for early mobization post anaesthesia, chiefly prevention of thrombsis, if this woman had died of a pulmonary embolism because she was not encouraged to mobilise it would be the health professional still at fault. In the not too distant past women were bed ridden for days post partum and the died of preventable causes, so whats one broken leg compared to the lives saved.
Oh sounds a bit regimented. What is appropriate for this patient at this particular time. Don’t want people afraid of nurses and hospitals do we, no Nurse Ratched stuff.
Psych nurse (10.2) …
I take on board your comparison with life threatening DVTs. However, it is definitely not satisfactory for a new mother to suffer a fractured leg immediate post partum, through staff failure to recognise a problem existed after receiving epidural anaesthesia. This is something which could have been avoided had the nurse been doing her job as an observant, caring health professional. Negligence is not conducive towards a good start for the new mother or her baby.
During the time I had my two children, it was mandatory for new mothers to rest up, bond with baby and establish good feeding patterns in the maternity hospital, usually for about a week or thereabouts. Most of us mothers were encouraged to move around, at a level that was comfortable for us, but not forced if mobility caused pain or difficulties. Also during that post natal period, the hospital physiotherapist visited, giving appropriate exercise programmes to assist mobility, as well as to prevent DVTs from forming. This system worked quite well for most new mothers and their babies.
Seems these days good, positive, as well as respectful maternity care is non existent. More the pity!
I’d like to see ACC expanded to include sickness – basically turn it into income protection insurance for illness and injury. This could partly be funded by removing the requirement to provide sick leave, and levying employers more on the savings. Any thoughts?
That was the original plan.
Should also cover unemployment.
It is still a tax, but much more palatable when people can see where it is going and why.
Pity we cannot stop right wing Governments, however, from treating it like a cash cow, commercial insurance.
Sick leave can be utilised for other than the worker’s own sickness, no matter what the company allows or is told. It is a safety net for families, though may not be used because of harsh necessity and resentment by the business against those not collapsing at work. My sister was a teacher, very devoted and hard working, and the management of her school were a bit snippy when she needed time off. Don’t think of cutting sick leave is my thought.
I definitely agree that retaining leave of some sort for dependents is essential, but that can be included in the ACC rules.
Craig H
You are so trusting. The ACC rules can be changed, subverted etc. They already are a different beast than when they were started. The things they do to the needy people on their books, and the ones the reject, are not good reading. I think they are reducing costs by putting people’s applications through a computerised system, ie being sorted by robot brains. Some of the humans weren’t so good because the government set pet medical doctors onto them to decide whether they could come in without being bitten, or have to endure a fight. Don’t think ACC is some reliably good organisation to help the community. I think they are something useful because their reserves look good on a balance sheet for the country so we can keep a low interest rate on our borrowing, so we can have some money circulating like a real economy.
The Holidays Act can be changed too if the government of the day decides to. Provided the ACC Act sets the entitlements into legislation rather than regulations, it’s as safe (or not) as any other legislative entitlement.
Too much power in one hands can create misery. Don’t think you quite understand how our government slowly has unwound, and sometimes quickly, legislative entitlements. Sorry to burst your bubble.
Because laughing is helpful. Samantha Bee on the twitter and chief. 7.03 long.
National reshuffle done.
It’s going to be Judith Collins versus Phil Twyford in the transport and urban development portfolios.
He can take her no probs.
But it will be fireworks.
I don’t think he can, I think hes about to find out how difficult the job can really be
Collins couldn’t take a car off an 18 year old yob and I doubt she’ll fare any better against Twyford.
The point wasn’t to see how many cars could be crushed it was to stop the cars being in such way they would be crushed
The yobs cut way down on what they were doing so Jude scored a major win on that point
And shes number 4 with a portfolio that will see her get media attention so any faltering in the polls and Jude can lead National to the promised land so its a win-win-win situation all round (except for Twyford and Labour of course)
Major win my arse.
Much to her embarrassment, the 18 year old yob took Colllins’ ministry on wild goose chase, and won.
The Government, and it’s Minister, Phil Twyford what to build shitloads of houses.. Lots of New Zealanders want shitloads of houses built, fast. The National Party, and it’s aspiring leader, Judith Collins want to stop them doing this.
What could possibly go wrong …..
“The yobs cut way down on what they were doing so Jude scored a major win on that point”
No they didn’t 🙂
It’s what you’d like to think I know but nah we, oops, they, didn’t..
The yobs cut way down on what they were doing
Yeah Right!
What planet are you on again?
Rich and entitled humans torture sentient beings.
For sport.
Disgusting.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12010650
I didn’t open the link but I’m assuming you’re talking about Clarke Gayford
No – Paula Bennett.
Would you use that same sentence to describe Clarke Gayford – New Zealand’s first man of fishing ?
Yes
Tag and release good on her.
Yes so good to torture an animal just for sport.
Not even to eat.
Just for fun.
Good on her.
In fairness I’ve only caught two. We smoked both and fed a ton of people.
I never asked.
Please tell me what the video says.
I’m terribly sorry ED I never realised you were hard of hearing.
This is an interview about the very important rights of animals. Ali G invited animal rights ambassadors to talk with him about how we should treat animals. The guests did their best to explain why it is wrong to perform experiments on animals at home, an important question that was asked was –
“Would you eat a chicken if another chicken would die if you said no!”
I don’t see the relevance to the story about Bennett torturing a sentient being just for fun.
Can you?
Oh Yes, on so very many levels Ed.
Good on you.
Terribly sorry Stunned Mullet but you have been coming on TS long enough to know that we like to have some information about what is going on in your brain, what point it wants to make about what the video contains so we know whether we want to watch it. Is it going to be fun, or informative, or like something that happens in NZ that is worthy of notice etc.
😆
Rich and entitled humans torture sentient beings.
Just count your blessings that cats didn’t come to dominate the planet, mate
They couldn’t be worse than humans…or could they ?
http://www.imghumour.com/assets/Uploads/Cat-Hitler2.jpg
Actually it was dolphins..
i live with 3 cats that make a lie of your statement that they don’t dominate the planet
This weekend I keep going back to this piece on Paul Keating’s latest utterances in the SMH. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/paul-keating-praises-donald-trump-as-surprisingly-good-at-foreign-policy-20180309-p4z3mh.html
What gets me is not just what Keating says, but the conditions that underpin it. It seems as if the “professional politicians” that replaced the old representative ones are inhibited from meaningfully engaging in realpolitik, due to their subservience to corporate and financial interests. The fact is, the whole world did not magically transform into dedicated adherents to the so-called Washington Consensus, and their response has been limited to bullying and cajoling those who have not succumbed: “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen”, they seem to think. Keating refers to this approach as a “lack of strategy” and praises Trump for at least trying.
The last two sentences: Mr Keating said Russia had the power to “obliterate” the US, and urged Mr Trump to maintain a workable relationship with the Kremlin.
“Russia alone has the capacity to obliterate the United States. If you’re a country that lives under the threat of obliteration, you generally should have a policy.”
I wonder if we should campaign to oust David Parker for signing the TPP. He hasn’t kept his promises. It isn’t in the public interest. And most importantly it won’t bring down the coalition. But it will make them think long and hard before shafting New Zealand again.
Wearing it on his sleeve.
Channeling the Romanovs.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested Jews and other minorities in Russia, including Tatars and Ukranians, could be to blame for meddling in the US presidential election.
“Maybe they’re not even Russians,” he told NBC News. “Maybe they’re Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, just with Russian citizenship. Even that needs to be checked.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-jews-meddling-interfering-us-elections-fbi-investigation-robert-mueller-a8249671.html
Nah that’s fine it’s not racism unless you photoshop his head onto Oprah.
Perhaps tRump has no intention of being voted out.
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts state secretary William Galvin is strongly opposing President Donald Trump’s proposal to dispatch Secret Service agents to polling places during federal elections.
A provision of the Homeland Security reauthorization bill would allow armed Secret Service agents to enter polling locations at the direction of the President. Galvin says he is “horrified that this is even under consideration.”
https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2018/03/10/mass-state-secretary-blasts-trumps-proposal-to-dispatch-secret-service-to-polling-places
Looks like the shining beacon on the hill is out of fuel
Says you. You are of course the voice of reason….and a legend in you’re own mind.
TS …. something in recent times you come to love to hate.
The commenters with such a love of their own arseholes and self-adjuged intelligence. The egos. The dried up old public servants trying to remain relevant as contributors (probably … i was going to mention Paekakariki or Browns Bay …. best not go there or it’ll provoke an Ad-like epistle justifying ilk and neo-lib, or at least neo-lib-lite ideology).
An ability to sympathise rather than empathise….there goes the progressive Chardonnay TVNZ7 leftie.
Time is running out though folks. The game is up…. which is why NZ elected a change. Hopefully the MMP govts participants may soon come to realise what put them there, and why, and what is expected of them.
Dont hold back, tell us what you really think